Beer: Reviews & Ratings

Fresh bottle at Bar Volo. Pours auburn with a big creamy topping head. Many lace dots follow. A big mouthfeel and a high bitterness, this is bitter, still a good drinkability. A little sour in the sediment.A tongue shredder roughness to it. Hoppy aroma. (253 characters)

Bottle: Poured a deep amber color ale with a rather large foamy head with good retention and minimal lacing. Aroma of light bitter hops with lightly sweet caramel malt. Taste is also a nice enough mix between some caramel malt with light residual sugar and some bitter hops at the end. Body is quite full with good carbonation. Not bad but nothing spectacular. (360 characters)

341ml bottle, another from the recent, and welcome variety pack from this East Coast brewer, now available at your finer booze purveyors of Alberta.

This beer pours a clear, bright medium copper amber hue, with three bulbous fingers of billowy, densely foamy, and eventually caked off-white head, which leaves a random vista of sudsy stratus cloud lace around the glass as it dutifully recedes.

The carbonation is average, with just a tame carbonic upswing at random intervals, the body a decent medium weight, and adequately smooth, which speaks more to the nature of the heretofore pushy hops. It finishes dry, with some persistently zingy leafy, citrusy, and piney bitterness, and a mere suggestion of boozy warmth.

I know there's been too much crossover in the IPA/PA side of things of late, but I still must confess that I like my APAs hoppy rather than not, so kudos to Garrison for feeding and indulging my habit here, almost to the point of malt irrelevance. Maybe not quite a yard's worth of hops, but something in the ballpark, that's for sure. (1,474 characters)

Good bar-pour head. Leaves plenty of interconnecting spots on the glass. Golden amber and nearly clear.

Attractive floral hop nose. Slightly sweet but not in a cloy way.

If blindfolded, I'd swear I was drinking an IPA. There's lots of bitterness with a solid pale malt base. The aftertaste is long lasting with a hop bite that falls short of sucking a hop pellet. Full bodied with low-ish level of carbonation.

Picked up during a trip to Halifax. The beer pours a yellow-orange color with a white head. The aroma is heavy on the flowery hops, along with some grass and biscuit malt. The flavor has hop aspects that are flowery, earthy and grassy. I also get some biscuit malt and a flavor that is reminiscent of iced tea. There is not much bitterness, but there is quite a bit of hop flavor. Medium mouthfeel and medium carbonation. Not bad, but nothing too terribly special. (464 characters)

On tap at The Snooty Fox.Pours a golden amber color with a huge off white head that persists for a while. The aroma is filled with butterscotch and popcorn. I find it hard to get passed the butter, but the bartender assures me that this is a west coast style IPA. The flavor follows the aroma Medium body with a moderate level of carbonation. I couldn't get past the butter but other people tell me this is great. (414 characters)

A broiled caramel colour whose toasty golden-brown tones makes for a lovely looking appearance. They make for a flashy one too; the beer's edges shimmer and if held into the light the entire body becomes impressively aglow. Bubbles make for visual entertainment while a foamy white bumper stays roped around the contour.

Appreciating the fact that this is a pale ale and wasn't intended to compete as an IPA, I won't be too disappointed my nose wasn't met with the blistering citrus and sappy resins of West coast hops (even though the beer was brewed and dry-hopped with them). There is a slight tinge of very minty, lightly pithy zest but its presence demands frequent stirring. I'll leave the score where is but it's dangerously close to being set a little lower.

Ya, I definitely would not agree with the brewery in considering Hop Yard "exceptional in the West Coast style". (Despite the dry-hopping effort this hoppiness falls far, far short of what's customary on the West coast.) Nugget, Amarillo and Cascade do fit the bill for a beer of that mold; unfortunately, the resulting ale doesn't taste enormously Amarillo-y or Cascade-y; there is a touch of pink grapefruit but it's disappointingly minor.

In the absence of intended hoppy zest, Pale and Crystal malt leave much flavour to be desired. But the beer is salvageable - that 40 IBU mark is about the threshold for a proper mouthfeel in hoppy pale ales and IPA's. Given the medium-light body and that faint bite of hop resins, this should disappear mighty fast. Boy, I hate feeling unsatisfied after a beer, even if the dissatisfaction comes from not having another bottle!

Apparently the hops used in this beer were grown in partnership with a local and functioning historic agricultural museum, the end goal being "a brew made with 100 percent local ingredients." That's a fantastic endeavor and Hop Yard Pale is a promising sign of things yet to come. My only suggestion would be to use more of these local hops for future batches, which I will undoubtedly be looking forward to. Thanks ThatWineGuy! (2,073 characters)

Botle form a 6-pack, picked up from the LCBO. Bottled July 5, and consumed July 20, 2011. Reviewed from notes, poured into a pint glass.

Poured a golden orange, transient offwhite head. Some big bubbles are produced but those fade quite quickly. Minimal retention and lace. Nose has some lemon, grapefruit and some orange notes. Pale malts, light graininess and some sweeter caramelized notes. Taste has some grainy and toasty pale malt notes, orange and other assorted citrus notes with a medium bitterness imparted by these. Light caramel notes. Fairly lengthy finish with a light body that almost borders on watery. A drinkable pale ale; thirst-quenching but brings nothing new to the table. (695 characters)

Appearance - Hazy amber/copper colour with a large size frothy beige coloured head. There is a low amount of carbonation showing and there is some good lacing. The head lasted for around 7 minutes before it was gone.

Smell - Malts, bread, hops, grapefruits, tangerines

Taste & Mouth - There is an average amount of carbonation and I can taste malts, breads and a decent amount of hops. There are some very light citrus flavours as well (tangerine, lemon, and grapefruit) but its more of a dry woody type of hopped pale ale. It finishes with a malty dry bitter hop aftertaste.

Overall - There is actually quite a bit of hop bitterness going on with this beer. It almost comes across as more of an IPA. I enjoyed the beer more as it warmed up in my glass. Thanks Swedes21 (786 characters)

O/D - High drinkability. I've sessioned this before and been happy drinking it all day. It's very tasty and the ABV plays to it's advantage. A decent Pale Ale with a good flavour to work with as a session ale. (654 characters)

Bottle from Volo. Pours a golden-orange colour with great head and retention. Smells of citrus hops and some caramel sweet malt. Taste has a great hit of bitterness, but still sweet from the malt. Very balanced. I really like this APA, and it almost verges on being an IPA. I think their Imperial is half way between an IPA and a double IPA, so that makes sense. I want to try more from Garrison because this is good. (417 characters)

Beer is a light amber, with a thick white head of decent size. Pretty good retention, moderate lacing.

Smell is clearly hops. Citrus and a faint bit of pine. A bit of caramel malt in the background.

The caramel malt is more present in the taste than the nose, but this is still clearly a hop-centered beer. However, the hops provide more bitterness than anything else. The citrus is toned down, replaced by a woodsy flavour. Aftertaste is all bitterness.

Re-review - had a fresh sixer bottled less than a month ago, and the flavour was a lot fresher, with a better hop character. It really hits the spot on a hot Summer's day, so I've adjusted the taste and drinkability scores up a notch.

Garrison's Hop Yard is brewed with hops grown by the brewery itself, so I'm confused why the brewery would not make more of a point of this on their label. It seems like a good marketing op has gone to waste.

We're off to a good start - a golden body of great clarity supports a finger of snow white head that has good retention and laces well. The nose throws me a little, because while it does have a decent hoppiness, its not as intense as I expected. There's a decent juiciness, dash of herbs, dry malt and a touch of cream. The flavour has a pleasant bitterness, with the hops manifesting in a herbal fashion (I'm guessing these are English varieties). Sweet throughout, but not cloying, its maltier than usual for a pale, with strong caramel hits. The mouthfeel is pretty average - while the medium-light body is good and appropriate, the carbonation is too short-lived to impress.

This is a strange brew. Not bad in of itself, but the question has to be asked - if you wanted to showcase the brewery's hops then why not do it in an IPA?

Tried a sample at Beerfest, finally got around to getting a 6 pack, and enjoy a full bottle.Poured clear, golden-copper color with lots of big carbonation bubbles. Foam shrinks to a thin floating cap, leaving some thin strings of lace. Lots of citrus, pink grapefruit smells, fresh hops. Same, bold upfront hoppiness - as much hop flavor as many IPAs I have tried. Lots of bitterness, yet still balanced by some malt character. The aftertaste has the familiar citrus hop finish. The carbonation and mouthfeel are smooth, medium bodied. A nice hoppy pale ale. I have enjoyed all of Garrison's beers so far, and this is another good one. (636 characters)

A - crystal clear copper golden, tall head with solid retention and random lacingS - citrus and herbal with toasty grain and a fruity noteT - woody herbal and crisp citrus hop character, solid grainy malt backbone, with light fruitiness coming through on the finishM - refreshing carbonation kick, pleasant dry bitterness with just a little breadiness to balanceD - a very sessionable beer for a hop lover, it has enough balance to keep it interesting, but the dry hopping allows the hops to come through aggressively (521 characters)

Go figure that a pretty good APA is made in Halifax. This beer, when poured into a pint glass is gold to copper in color. There is a smell of sweetness and some earthy hops. The taste is kind of strange. Sweet at first but then oddly bitter. Somehow I found it worked well and was quite enjoyable. Carbonation is noticable but it is still drinkable. I was suprised that I liked this as much as I did. (400 characters)